Weight of the World
by prncsssarahj
Summary: Obi is trying to get Raffe to cooperate, Penryn is trying to get Raffe to take this seriously, and Raffe is just trying to cope. Rated T because I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

Raffe smiled like he knew something Penryn didn't. It was one of those lazy, almost-smirks that she really wished she could ignore. But she didn't, she couldn't because it was RAFFE. And she really wished he would stop giving her bedroom eyes when her sister was in the room, for goodness' sake!

_No no no no they are NOT bedroom eyes, he is a freaking archangel and he is not gonna fall just for me. Not that it would be much different from his current predicament... And I do NOT have to let him affect me. Not at all._

"Raffe, just... Can't you stop playing games with us for ONCE, and TRY to be helpful?" a very frustrated Obi asked, clearly running out of patience.

_Right. The meeting. Focus. On. The meeting, Penryn._

That infuriating smirk, like he had all the time in the world. Without lifting his eyes from Penryn, Raffe began to speak in a low, enchanting voice. "You want me to give up my family, my home, and my people? Is this what I'm hearing?"

_Ugh why why why does it feel like he's trying to seduce me?_

Penryn felt like she was iron and he was a magnet. He was simply irresistible.

Obi sighed, as if he knew this was coming. Actually, he probably DID know this was coming. "Yes. I know you have to be the one to ultimately make that choice, Raffe. But I am not above torturing an angel. I have done worse things to survive and keep my men alive, and I will not hesitate to do this. But it is your choice."

Raffe seemed to turn this over in his head, all the while wiggling his eyebrows obscenely at Penryn. "Okay, just checking. What do you need to know?"

Penryn breathed an actual sigh of relief. She didn't know exactly what she felt for Raffe, but he certainly deserved better than torture.

_He deserved better than having his wings cut off._

Penryn looked over at Paige. The younger girl insisted on going everywhere with Penryn now. At first she thought it was because Paige was afraid in this new place, surrounded by strangers, but then she realized: her little sister didn't trust Raffe. Maybe it was because she had been experimented on by angels, or maybe it was because their mother didn't trust him. Either way, it became more evident the more she was in a room with Raffe.

Right now, Paige just looked tired. Like she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders.

_Then again, who DOESN'T carry the weight of the world on their shoulders nowadays?_

Penryn stood up, drawing the gaze of everyone in the room. "It's getting late, and Paige is tired. I'm going to take her back to our room." Nobody seemed to object. Paige made everyone just a tad bit nervous, with the odd exception of Raffe.

_Note to self: find out why Raffe isn't scared of my sister._

As Penryn left the room, she was well aware of Raffe's smirk following her, almost like it was a puppy. Granted, it was a very cute puppy, and she might be a little glad it was following HER.

_No, not glad. Not glad at all._

After Penryn had made sure Paige was asleep, she ever-so-quietly opened the door and slipped out. She had to go make sure Raffe knew it was NOT ok to try to seduce her in front of her innocent little sister. Also, how the HECK was she supposed to keep her cool in these meetings with him looking at her like he'd rather be doing much more... INTERESTING things with her?

She stopped outside of the room where Raffe was "staying." The guards outside looked at her with an amused look, but she gave them a look that said, "Hello, I've killed an angel with my bare hands! What have YOU done with your lives?" and they brought their expressions back to normal.

As she entered the room, it struck her that perhaps he was asleep. In the dark, she could make out a form under the blankets, and a soft sound that suggested he was- Penryn snickered- SNORING? seemed to accompany it. She turned to leave, because she started to feel immensely creepy. Think: EDWARD CULLEN creepy. That's when she heard her name.

At first, she thought she was imagining it, but then it came again, a little bit louder. Was he... Murmuring her name in his sleep? He suddenly flipped his body over, his new beastly wings getting tangled in the sheets, and let out a word that was not very angel-like. His blue eyes seemed to glow in the soft light coming through the tiny window in the corner.

"Am I dreaming, or are you finally waking up to the marvels of my beauty?" His voice sounded sleepy, yet with an alertness that reminded her that he is, or was, a soldier.

"I'm sorry, I thought you were very opposed to the very idea of doing anything that would get you kicked out of heaven. And do you mean to say you actually DO like me after all?"

Everything seemed to slow down, and something seemed to give way inside Raffe, because the next minute he was sighing and making room for her on the bed, as if it were some great imposition. Penryn gaped at him.

"I am NOT here for that, Raphael. I am here to tell you to quit giving me those..."

"Scandalous? Steamy? Breathtakingly captivating?" Raffe supplied.

"I believe the word I am looking for is CONSTIPATED. Quit giving me those constipated looks while my sister is in the room, if you please." Penryn felt a small triumph, but then Raffe moved quicker than she'd ever seen him move, and then his hand was on her wrist dragging and his body was pulling hers against it, and his arms were wrapping around her. She swore she heard him let out a sigh of relief, and she realized that the last time he had held her in his arms was when he thought she was DEAD. This was his assurance, that she was alive, that she wasn't going anywhere. He was walking them slowly backward, toward the bed. She pulled away, only to tell him that she had to leave, but there was something in his eyes that begged her to stay, to not leave him alone with his demons. With himself. So she didn't object when he pulled her down onto the bed with him, and she almost expected him to kiss her, but he just pulled her in as close as he could to his chest, his new wings loose against his back, scratching at the wall behind him. He pulled her to him, and he buried his face into her neck, inhaling the scent of her hair. He stayed like that for a long time, until Penryn started to feel wet drops fall onto her neck. He was crying.

"Penryn?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry I said I didn't like you."


	2. Chapter 2

Ok, so this one is kinda short because I actually had plans, and then I got home and wrote.

* * *

When Raffe woke up, he noticed two things.  
One: Penryn was in his arms, smelling IMMENSELY distracting, and he decided he would have liked to go back to sleep had it not been for number two.  
Two: Paige was standing over his bed with a flashlight and a snarl on her face. She was very disconcerting, but Raffe wasn't afraid of her.  
"Hey, Paige. What's going on?" He asked, as though he hadn't just been caught in bed WITH PAIGE'S SISTER. If anything, this direct address, coupled with the fact that her sister AND Raffe were fully clothed (Raffe knew that however innocent Penryn insisted Paige is, the kid couldn't be stupid. She was living in the apocalypse, after all) seemed to confuse and possibly pacify the girl. She turned off the flashlight, although she was still giving him a suspicious look. He didn't blame her. Penryn was worth a few suspicious looks.  
"Raffe. Why is Penryn here?" Paige asked in a whisper. "She was supposed to stay in our room."  
Raffe looked her in the eye. He wasn't about to start treating the kid like she was stupid. That would probably be the fastest way to ensure he never got to spend ANY time with Penryn. "We were talking about some things, going over our plans, and it was pretty late, I guess we fell asleep."  
With that assurance, Paige sat down by the bed.  
_Is she gonna stay there?_  
Paige seemed pretty tired...  
Raffe carefully untangled himself from Penryn, who seemed to be trying to mutter something under her breath. He shivered as his feet hit the cold ground, which Paige seemed ready to fall asleep on.  
"Paige, can you keep Penryn company for the rest of the night? I need to talk to Obadiah, and I'm not sure when I'll be back." He was saying this, of course, so that Paige didn't end up sleeping on the floor, when he was in a nice warm bed with Penryn, who should really be with her sister, anyway. Paige needed her more than he did.  
As he bent over to put on his boots, he heard Paige climbing into the bed and snuggling up next to Penryn. He found a spare piece of paper from the stack of maps that Obadiah had given him to draw locations of possible Angel camps, and wrote a quick note so Penryn didn't think he had used her for hugs and then ran.  
**Went to go see Obadiah, see you when I see you.**  
**~Raffe, Archangel of Awesome**  
**P.S. thank you for the hugs. We'll talk later, I promise.**  
As he left the note on the corkboard by the door where she would be sure to find it, he turned back to look, and the sight made him feel a sad kind of longing. He knew that someday, Penryn would make an amazing mother. He just wished that she could be the mother of HIS children.  
_We can't always get what we want, can we? Not while the world is ending, anyway_.


	3. Chapter 3

Ok so I realize this is also short, and I'm sorry. They'll get longer as the story develops, I promise.

* * *

Obi rolled his eyes in frustration. Even now, when Raffe was FINALLY cooperating, he was finding ways to be difficult. He had decided that there was urgent information that needed to be shared with Obi immediately, when in fact it was just to inform him of angelic grooming standards, apparently.  
_And did I mention that it's the middle of the night? I wonder how many different ways he could kill me..._  
As Raffe blabbed about how preening another's feathers was apparently a mating ritual while managing to whisper as if he was giving away some kind of ancient secret (which he probably was, but Obi wished it could be a HELPFUL ancient secret), Obi tried to focus. He really did. But it was three O'clock in the morning, and it was highly unlikely that Raffe was speaking in any sort of code.  
_I wonder if he's gotten Penryn to "preen his feathers" yet... Oh wait... he doesn't HAVE feathers anymore._  
At that thought, Obi felt awful, but his frayed nerves went against his better judgement and he snickered. He couldn't help it, it was THREE A.M. Apparently Raffe had been in the middle of some kind of revelation about how intimate a gesture this was, and he looked highly offended that Obi had laughed.  
"So you wanted to know all the secrets of my race, to understand what makes us tick, and yet you ridicule one of our most sacred customs? Do you honestly think that you... you..." Raffe's eyes were cold and uncompromising like the chilly air of a winter morning as he spit out the next word. "MONKEYS! You monkeys have ANYTHING that even compares to the trust of letting another preen the wings that you depend on for flight?"  
"I'm sorry, Raffe. I have had a LONG day, and I was just imagining my men defeating an army of angels by getting out beauty products and preening the feathers of these soldiers."  
Raffe gave him a startled look, followed by a chuckle. "Well, I suppose this could be rather unhelpful information, but I do need a bit of time to make sure I can trust you. And to be fair, they could open one of those beauty parlors you see on television. 'The Angelic Feathers Spa', I can see it now."  
Obi snorted. Now he was picturing angels in curlers and cucumber masks.  
"Raffe, would you mind horribly if we continued this sometime tomorrow? I'm tired, and I suspect that Penryn is missing you." He said this last part with a sly smile, and Raffe looked startled.  
"What do you mean by that? I don't understand." The angel in front of him now had a stony look on his face. Obi simply smiled and left the room.  
_I SO called that. Maybe it was because Penryn started a fight after another woman flirted with him. I wonder if angels and humans can even get married? Is that a thing? I wonder if they have kids, would they be like little cherubs? I definitely need sleep._

* * *

Ok so omg Obi might have been a little bit of a jerk in this one but I bet you'd be crabby too if an archangel woke you up at three in the morning to talk about angelic mating rituals. But Obi TOTALLY ships Raffryn cause yolo. Shhh I know that's a terrible excuse don't judge me.


	4. Chapter 4

WARNING! This chapter is so fluffy that it might cause happiness and OTP feels!

* * *

Penryn woke up to the sound of light breathing and the feel of her sister's small frame curled into her own. Everything seemed normal, but the smell was wrong. It smelled like the wind, but there was no draft. Her half-asleep brain tried to process what this meant, and when she realized, she sat straight up, causing Paige to stir.  
_Last night... We're in Raffe's room. But why is Paige here? What happened?_  
Paige didn't seem to be startled by this turn of events, and she crawled over Penryn and slid off the bed. She started to poke something on the floor, and when Penryn rolled over, she saw that Raffe, in his flannel pajama bottoms and tshirt (much too tight on him, it belonged to one of the thinner men. Penryn was having a hard time not staring now that she had light to assist her), had fallen asleep with his boots on as if he had left in the middle of the night.  
"Mmmmf yes preen _that_ one. RIGHT there," he mumbled in his sleep, causing Paige to look at Penryn with an accusing glance, although she did seem to be hiding a giggle. "Penryn..."  
_I have to do SOMETHING. I can't just let my innocent sister listen to Raffe's... SCANDELOUS dreams._  
That being thought, she stood up, then lovingly kicked the slumbering angel in the side. With love.  
_The love of him shutting up, that is._  
Penryn once again forgot to account for how fast he was, and his hand grabbed her ankle pulled her down on top of him, even as he was preparing to roll them over so he would have the upper hand. He was halfway through this maneuver when he realized that it was just Penryn, but decided to keep her hugged to his chest.  
"Good morning, lovely and merciful Lady Penryn. It is so kind of you to grace my ribcage with the generous kick of devotion." There was a pause, and Penryn wondered what was going through his mind. "And how does the kind and beautiful Lady Paige fair? I trust you slept well?"  
_Is Paige giggling? What happened? I thought she hated him?_  
Paige was, indeed, giggling, and had to calm down before responding.  
"I did, actually. No thanks to you, being stingy and trying to keep Penryn all to yourself. How did the meeting with Obi go?"  
Penryn was a bit shocked. Where had this sudden cameraderie between Raffe and her sister come from? It was one thing for Raffe to not be afraid of her...  
_Oh. Maybe that's why she's opening up. Everyone around here is treating her like a caged lion. Raffe is treating her like an equal._  
It made sense, when she thought about it. Paige always had wished that even though she was physically disabled, people would view her as an equal. Her new terrifying image was just as respect draining as her wheelchair had been.  
"Well, I don't think I was as helpful as he wanted, but I really am trying to help him understand the angels. I think he's not really interested in some of the cultural things that I find important enough to mention."  
That being said, he proceeded to roll them over and began to tickle Penryn, motioning for Paige to help him. "Come on, kid! We won't get many opportunities like this!"  
It was a three minute tickle session, but when they all dissipated into giggles and collapsed on the floor with Penryn in the middle and two of her favorite people in the world on either side, she felt like she really could do this. If they were going against the wishes of heaven, and they won, Raffe could actually be a member of their family. They might not be able to have children of their own (for fear of them becoming killing machines, of course), but maybe they could adopt. This war of angels and men had no doubt left many orphans. They could start a home and they could love each and every one of their children.

As the meeting that afternoon dragged on, Penryn wondered what had happened in the middle of the night to change Obi's mind from torturing Raffe to joking with him.  
_Maybe it has something to do with the dream he was having this morning... Note to self: find out what EXACTLY we were doing in that dream. Wait, never mind. I might not want to know._  
As expected, Raffe was still being unhelpful, but this time it wasn't because he wasn't cooperating. It was because he was volunteering utterly useless information, and she wondered just how patient Obi really was. He seemed to be amused, and kept making remarks that she thought would totally offend Raffe, but the archangel just laughed it off, as if they were old friends.  
"Well Raffe, I'm sure when you find more HELPFUL information, you'll be sure to tell me. I'm sure you must have things to do..."  
Was Obi wiggling his eyebrows? What was going on?  
"Perhaps some _preening_ to do?"  
Raffe's face turned an interesting shade of red, almost purple, really. Penryn thought back to his dream that morning, and...  
_Good gravy, it's an innuendo. How did I not see that? Never mind, I am SO not adopting babies with him._  
Even as she tried to hide her blush, she knew that was a lie. She was SO gonna adopt babies with them if they won this war.

* * *

I hate to say I told you so, but I really, REALLY told you so. Idk, I just really want Paige to like Raffe, because Penryn's #1 priority is usually her sister, and the most important person in Penryn's life should definitely approve of the angel she's gonna adopt babies with, ok? Please review! I would love to know if I'm doing anything wrong so I can fix it early on in the story :3


End file.
